Unintended
by TheWammy'sHouseReject
Summary: Light is about to learn one of the little-known secrets of the Death Note, and things are about to get very ugly. Sometimes the worst outcomes are the ones you didn't intend...


DISCLAIMER: I hearby state that I, Wammy's House Reject, do not own Death Note or any of the characters, objects or plotlines associated with it. I also would like to state that if I DID own it, it would probably be a yaoi :)

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This fanfic is a collab between Daelyn Paolini and myself, and the result of about a month's worth of planning and work on both our parts. It will contain semi-graphic scenes of various instances of Zombie carnage, and is not for the faint of heart, so proceed with caution. It will also contain mild spoilers for everything up to the end of the Yotsuba arc :P

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**-****Zero hour of infection, 1900 hours, Kira Task Force-**

Soichiro Yagami never realized just how drastically a single phone call could change his entire life. In the years he had worked as chief at the NPA, he'd seen and heard more than his share of horrible tragedies. Mothers killing children, children killing fathers, brothers slaughtering each other... but nothing could have prepared him for...this.

He answers the phone to the sound of screaming and panicked breathing.

"What's going on?! What's wrong?!"

"Ch-chief..." The man on the other end of the line has a chilling depth of horror in his voice Soichiro has never heard before.

"They're all-They're all coming back. Kira's victims are... th-they're alive... and a-attacking people. E-everyone is-"

Soichiro hears a horrible noise, an abhorrent mixture between a growl and a roar, a sickening squishing noise, and a blood-chilling shriek of agony.

His arm falls limply by his side, his limbs turning to lead. His mind seems to have gone blank, numb from the shock. The cellphone that was in his hands clatters to the floor.

"Dad? Are you okay?"

Light stands up and touches his father lightly on the shoulder. His brow is furrowed in anxiety and stunned apprehension. Even L seems to notice. But unlike Light, he isn't bothered to get out of his chair.

"You've gone very pale, Mister Yagami. Is something wrong?"

L is met with a silence filled only with Soichiro's steadily rising panic. With baited breath, the last members of the Task Force watch the older man intently.

"Kira's victims...It seems...they've started coming back from the dead. And are killing people."

Dead silence. Shock and horror were written on everyone's face- and on Light's worst of all.

"...Dad, that's insane," he says, softly, almost a whisper. "Dead people don't come back to life...do they?"

L manages to stay mostly composed, gnawing on his thumbnail and thinking rabidly.

"Now, Light, we can't throw that possibility out of the window just yet. We've already confirmed the existence of Shinigami. If gods of death are real, then it doesn't take much of a leap of faith to assume that the dead can come back to life- or, at least, some facsimile of it."

He seems remarkably calm, given the situation. But then again, what else is to be expected of the world's greatest detective?

He stretches out, his back cracking.

"The question that we should be asking is not 'does it exist', but rather, 'what is causing this to happen.' We'll make more progress that way."

He turns toward the rest of the task force.

"Aizawa, Mogi, please get extra arms and ammunition ready. If these creatures reach us, we can't be too prepared."

"Right away." The two burly men rush out to do as he asked.

L looks back at his computer and starts typing furiously. Matsuda is cowering in the corner, mumbling about still being asleep.

"I'm going to hack into the security system at the morgue the victims supposedly revived in. It's important that we see what they are and what exactly they did."

Light is still standing there, frozen in place, as if turned to stone. The gears in his head are whirling like mad.

How is this happening...? Is it because of me? What's going on...?

The computer screen flickers and switches over to the security camera footage. L rewinds it to the beginning of that day and watches with wide eyes.

It started out simply enough, with nothing out of the ordinary. Light is absolutely fixated on the screen, unable to breathe from the tightness in his chest.

"Nothing's happening," Matsuda remarks after a few minutes of painful silence.

"Shut up, Matsuda," L snaps.

One of the corpses on an autopsy table twitches. An intern enters the morgue, oblivious to the imminent danger. He walks past the cadaver, not giving it a fleeting thought. As he rummages through a filing cabinet in the corner, the corpse slowly rises from the steel table, the white sheet half covering his grey body. Its face twitched sporadically, as if it couldn't control its muscles.

"Oh no..." Matsuda whimpers.

"Turn around ," Light quietly demands. Turn around before it hurts you...

"Perhaps you should do the same, Light. You're paler than your father."

The ashen corpse grabs onto the intern's wrist. The startled young man turns around, and shrieks, trying to pull out of the iron grip.

"Oh my God!" He screams, drawing all the attention in the room to him. "Oh my God!"

The ghastly humanoid sinks its blunt teeth into his wrist, blood gushing into its mouth. The intern's scream reaches a pitch that was nearly out of the range of human hearing.

A few of the other doctors and medical examiners try in vain to pry the corpse off him. Their eyes are clawed out, and chunks of flesh are torn away, leaving them reeling and squealing like pigs. The corpse lapped at their blood and tore at their skin with eagerness, easily overpowering the vigilantes with its sheer monstrosity and voracious hunger.

One or two at a time, more of the people who used to be dead are considerably less so. Within moments, there are more walking, ravenous dead than living, both criminals and doctors alike. Blood is splattered across the walls and coats the ceiling and floor of the morgue. The corpse that rose and bite into the intern's wrist is tearing through a man's stomach. Blood blankets the cold floor in large warm dots that seep into the crevices between once pristine tiles. A scalpel drops with a deafening clatter from a pale latex-clad hand. The crunch of bones beneath stiff fingers, the sound of blunt human teeth digging into soft, juicy flesh, like undercooked steak. L can almost smell the familiar reek of entrails from here; the thud of a lifeless warm body hitting the ground like a limp rag; dull eyes stare at the foot of the autopsy table.

The intern, who was first bitten and had managed to run through the morgue to the back exit hits the metal double doors, locked from the previous night; he looks over his shoulder to see his keys tucked safely away in his coat hanging on the back of a rolling chair. He beats the small glass windows with his bloody hands and begs for somebody to notice him, and save him. He yelps as a cadaver latches onto his shoulders, biting into the tense meat of his neck, and pulls him down to the floor. He screams and writhes beneath the corpse before falling limp, his glassy eyes turned toward the security camera.

"T...turn it off, L..."

Light is surprised at the uncertainty in his own voice.

My God...it's really happening...

Light looks over at the footage one last time with wide eyes and shaking hands. He looks at the pale face of the intern, an innocent person, covered in coagulating blood, lifeless and cold, murdered by a supposedly dead human being.

Is this Light's fault? Had he done something wrong with the Death Note? Is there some rule he missed, has Ryuuk hidden something from him? If his own victims are turning into these horrible...things, what about Misa's? Are her judgements killing people too?

Before Light is able to think more deeply, the intern on the television set blinks.

"Please, L...turn it off. We've seen enough." Matsuda whimpers as he speaks.

"...That's a good idea, Matsuda."

L's hand trembles slightly as he hits a button and turns the screen black just as the bloody young man begins to pull himself from the ground.

"Well, I suppose that settles the matter. Kira's victims really are coming back to life."

L hits another button.

"Watari...could you come in here, please?"

He leans back in his chair and closes his eyes. The day is still so young, yet everything is going horribly wrong already. He used to think that a notebook with the power to kill someone was the strangest thing he'd ever see. But L had been wrong before.

It's like the plot to one of those movies Matt and Mello always watched together, unfolding in front of him in real time. And, if it was anything like them, he didn't have a lot of hope for the ending, either.

Watari looks weak when he walks into the room.

"Ryuuzaki, I've just gotten off the phone with the FBI. Kira's victims are-"

"There too then."

Watari paused.

"What?"

"Kira's victims have been...coming back...in Japan as well. I think it's safe to assume that this is happening everywhere else Kira has murdered."

"My God..."

"Ryuuzaki, we have to do something about this!" Soichiro looks back at the black television screen in horror. "We can't just let these people die like that. Ryuuzaki-"

"Mr. Yagami, please...shut up!"

L clutches his knees tightly, trying to think of a short-term plan for them until they're actually in a position to do something about the situation. With Aizawa and Mogi gone to bring back weapons, L realizes with disdain that he and his team are down two very capable men. Could they even survive the trip to the NPA and back?

"Ryuuzaki, calm down. We'll get through this."

Light places a hand on L's shoulder and smiles consolingly. L can hear through Light's seemingly strong voice and see the fear in his eyes. The comfort is overtaken by the sincere worry that they might not get through this.

"Chief, Ryuuzaki, look!" Matsuda points at the monitors showing the entrance of the Headquarters buildings through the security cameras. "Aizawa and Mogi are back."

Aizawa is seen through the security monitors with Mogi pass through the security checkpoints with the extra ammunition. Moments later they enter the main room to rejoin the others.

L watches them through his low lashes, imagining every possible outcome for this scenario. He sighs, closes his eyes, and continues chewing on his thumbnail. None of them are good.

But he can't say that. He is L, and his men are counting on him.

"Good work, you two. Everyone, make sure you have plenty of ammunition and sufficient firearms. I have a feeling that we're seeing the beginning of something very ugly."

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Thanks so much for everyone who read this- Reviews are appreciated and loved. I'll try my best to respond to all of them, but I can't promise anything, sadly :'(


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